Mississippi

The public schools enroll 493,000 students: 49% African American, 45% White, and 3% Latino, with 72% living in poverty, and 1% learning English. The State spends $8,117 per pupil. (Most recent NCES data)

STATE CONSTITUTION

“The Legislature shall, by general law, provide for the establishment, maintenance and support of free public schools upon such conditions and limitations as the Legislature may prescribe.” Miss. Const. art. 8, § 201.

“There shall be a state common-school fund, to be taken from the General Fund in the State Treasury, which shall be used for the maintenance and support of the common schools…The state common-school fund shall be distributed among the several counties and separate school districts in proportion to the number of educable children in each.” Miss. Const. art. 8, § 206.

“No religious or other sect or sects shall ever control any part of the school or other educational funds of this state; nor shall any funds be appropriated toward the support of any sectarian school, or to any school that at the time of receiving such appropriation is not conducted as a free school.” Miss. Const. art. 8, § 208.

MAJOR CASES

Mississippi is one of only a few states in which no case has been filed challenging the constitutionality of the education finance system.